Following the FCC’s approval last week, AT&T announced Tuesday that it has finalized its acquisition of Qualcomm’s 700MHz spectrum licenses. The spectrum, which was previously used for Qualcomm’s FLO TV product, covers more than 300 million United States residents. AT&T said it paid Qualcomm approximately $1.9 billion in the deal. “This spectrum will help AT&T continue to deliver a world-class mobile broadband experience to our customers,” said AT&T SVP-Federal Regulatory Bob Quinn explained recently. AT&T’s full press release follows after the break. More →

The Federal Communications Commission announced on Monday that it will review AT&T’s planned $1.925 billion acquisition of Qualcomm’s FLO TV lower 700MHz frequency band at the same time that it reviews the carrier’s T-Mobile USA merger. AT&T announced its intentions to buy spectrum from Qualcomm in December of last year and said it planned to deploy the spectrum as “supplemental downlink” while it built out its 4G network. That acquisition was originally expected to close during the second half of this year, but the FCC clearly has some concerns on the matter. AT&T said the FCC and Department of Justice are on schedule to approve the T-Mobile deal in March 2012, however this could be a ding to AT&T’s 4G network plans if it was relying on having the Qualcomm deal approved by now. The FCC’s statement follows below. More →

The holidays are a time for giving, but AT&T decided it would scoop up a little stocking stuffer for itself this holiday season — a $2 billion stocking stuffer. The nation’s No. 2 carrier announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with Qualcomm to purchase blocks of 700MHz spectrum for $1.925 billion. The blocks in question were previously used for Qualcomm’s FLO TV service, and an estimated 300 million people were covered by the service. AT&T plans to ultimately use this newly acquired spectrum for its upcoming LTE network, which will begin rolling out next year. Hit the break for AT&T’s press release. More →

One of our oh-so-trusty ninjas hit us up last night with the above photo. It’s the much-rumored Qualcomm FLO TV personal TV unit. While Qualcomm is mostly known for making processors for mobile devices, it looks like they will be branching outside of their normal work and possibly manufacturing hardware, at least based on what we’ve been hearing about the FLO PTV product. FLO TV is available currently on AT&T and Verizon network handsets (depending on model) and uses a specific frequency separate of cellular signals to broadcast live TV to phones and devices. What the PTV product would do, is work as a standalone device which we’re hearing would also double as a portable media player of some kind. Previous rumors have pegged the device as having a capacitive touch screen, 4GB of built-in storage space and stereo speakers. Those specs fit in line with what we’ve been told. Sorry the picture isn’t a little bigger, but hey, it’s better than some sketches, right?

File this one under “huh?” According to a report from gdgt this morning, Qualcomm is readying a portable tablet-like dedicated FLO TV device that will provide users with TV on the go. Dubbed a Portable Television, or PTV, Qualcomm’s upcoming device is said to resemble the sketch above and is thought to be about the size of an iPhone. Reported specs include a capacitive touchscreen, 4GB of memory, stereo speakers and battery life to the tune of 300 hours of standby, 5 hours of TV and 15 hours of music. We’re not sure exactly who the device will be marketed toward or what hole it fills that is big enough to warrant a dedicated device, but all will be revealed soon — or at least by early next near at CES. Is anyone into the idea of a dedicated PTV or is convergence still the name of the game?